Why I now mix my holidays like a cocktail

After this travel dry spell, why not concoct your own soothing break? Anna Hart turns mixologist

I’ve had plenty of time, these past five months, to build up a good thirst and fine-tune my taste buds. I knew exactly which holiday cocktail I wanted, and this is the recipe: two-parts “family time”, one-part “self-centred wellness”, and one-part “culture and big city thrills”. It’s the perfect mix.

I know I’m not the only one treating holidays in 2021 almost as a prescription, a trip designed to soothe the stresses, ease the pains and satisfy the longings of this past lockdown. My friend Sophie, who spent this past year home-schooling two small children and valiantly trying to run her own illustration business, managed finally to offload the kids on to all-too-willing grandparents and escape with her wife for a weekend at The Standard (standardhotels.com), London’s swankiest new hotel. “I felt like I was in 1970s LA – the décor, the fancy food, the cocktails on the roof terrace; oh my gosh, my eyes were ready for some glamour,” she said, beaming, on her return. “It was exactly the opposite of the domestic drudgery I’ve had on my plate every day for what feels like a century.”

Another friend, a festival programmer – who, like many in the arts, spent the year working twice as hard, with twice as much stress and uncertainty but virtually no rewards or perks – has just decamped to Devon for a threenight silent walking retreat with Wandering Wild (wanderingwild.co.uk).

All around the UK, country dwellers are flocking to cities, Instagramming Tate Liverpool, Glasgow’s GoMA, Manchester Museum. Meanwhile, citydwellers are walking a stretch of Hadrian’s Wall, or wild swimming on the Isle of Skye, or lazing in a luxurious and blissfully remote country hotel like Gleneagles. Bon vivants who spent lockdown mastering every recipe in the Ottolenghi cookbook and deepening their knowledge of New Zealand’s wine, have checked themselves into healthrestoring spas at Galgorm Resort (galgorm.com) in Northern Ireland, or Ockenden Manor (hshotels.co.uk) in West Sussex… or are opting for a full-on detox at Bodhimaya (bodhimaya.com). I even know a couple of fitness fanatics who got through lockdown by shouting at each other about burpees on the beach every morning, who are now off to the Black Swan (blackswanoldstead. co.uk), a Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms in North Yorkshire. “We’re even going to take the weekend off being vegan!” said Jess, tingling with glee.

The concept of “prescribing” oneself holidays isn’t new to me, but it’s never felt quite so imperative. In fact, in 2021, we really do need our holidays to function

as medicine, to work hard for us, to deliver what we have lacked and craved for months. The big “lack” for me was my family, because I’ve managed to position myself in the corner of the southeast coast, far from my parents in Northern Ireland, far from my brother in Yorkshire, and even further from my sister in California. We’re a close family, and I make seeing my family a priority, so this distance really stung, and in recent months I felt like I was carting around quite a weight of sadness.

But hey, the joy of being embraced into the bosom of my family will only take me so far! I wanted more from my week away than family bonding. I’m also selfish, and vain, and I spent three months grumpily strapped up in a sling after shoulder surgery, so I booked a three-night yoga retreat so that I could start to feel fit and strong again. I am also greedy for experiences and thirsty for theatre, art exhibitions, museum shows and buzzy clattery restaurants, and I missed the city horribly.

I am aware that thousands of weary London-locked-in urbanites dreamed longingly of visiting Margate, but this was a winter of reciprocal discontent, when we all wanted what we didn’t have and coveted each other’s lives. So I threw in a night seeing friends and visiting the National Gallery and eating at a fancy new Asian restaurant I’ve been ogling on Instagram, the Smoking Goat (smokinggoatbar.com) in Shoreditch.

And gosh, this holiday cocktail hit the spot. I came home drunk on delight, dazzled by the variety show my senses had been treated to, and ready to appreciate my utterly lovely everyday existence at home. This has not exactly been a bonanza year for travel, but for Britain’s brigade of wannabe travellers, I suspect our holiday cocktail-mixing skills are now on point.

The cure? City dwellers are revelling in reconnecting with wild, remote locations